The Hiring of Labour for Field Cultivation: A Study in the Brahmaputra Valley of Northeast India

Abstract

On the basis of household-level data, the present study examines the hiring of farm labour in the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam in the north-eastern part of India. By adopting a multi-stage sampling technique, the primary data were collected from 237 randomly selected field crop cultivating households located in the lower, upper and central parts of the Brahmaputra Valley. The hiring of labour for field cultivation is extensive among the sample farm households of all size groups, but it varies across locations and activities. There are three forms of farm labour hiring, among which the hiring of labour on daily basis is common and pre-dominant. The wage of farm labourers is not same across activities, sex and locations. The estimation of independent double hurdle model depicts the farm size, type of cultivator and age of head of the household as the common factors that affect both the adoption and the extent of hiring of farm labour. The availability of family labour is another factor that affects the extent of hiring of farm labour.